Senior Labour councillor responsible for libraries says service will be “even better” than before once review is completed, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

There will be no library closures in Newham, a senior councillor has insisted, after a planned £1.6million spending cut was “partially reversed”.

Updated budget plans say the cut has been reduced by dropping staffing savings worth £470,000. But the future of the library service now won’t be decided until after May’s council elections.

Labour councillor Charlene McLean, the cabinet member responsible for libraries, made the announcement yesterday (Thursday 12th). She said the previously-planned £1.6m spending cut had “made the public assume the worst”.

She added: “I’m pleased to announce that the figure has been reversed.

“We’re committed to a review of the library service but without the figure attached.

“So the public can be reassured that we will have the best library service – even better than we have at the moment. There won’t be the figure hanging over us.”

Maria Christofi, the council’s senior officer in charge of finance, clarified that £470,000 of the planned cut had been scrapped. Updated budget papers, published yesterday evening, described this as a “partial reversal” of the cut.

Christofi said the remainign savings would come from “supplies and services” and property.

She said “supplies and services” as “equipment and small things that the service had – contracts that they’re reviewing”.

The finance chief said this was an “efficiency” and wouldn’t affect the service residents receive, adding: “We should be delivering the same for less.”

Christofi also said the property savings had been “amalgamated” into a broader, council-wide spending cut. She said this meant library buildings won’t close. “It was determined that these were not going to come from libraries because we were not closing any libraries,” she said.

The £1.6m cut from Newham’s library service by April 2028 was included in a budget approved in February 2025.

However, plans to achieve the cut were still to be decided in a libraries strategy following a survey of residents. The proposal led some residents to launch a ‘Save Newham Libraries’ campaign.

Speaking to a committee of councillors scrutinising budget plans yesterday, Cllr McLean said the proposed cut led people to “automatically assume there would be closures in libraries”.

She said she was still “committed to a review of the libraries service” which would make it “even better than we have at the moment”.

However, Cllr McLean also said a new plan for libraries would now be presented to council leaders in June – after local elections in May.

She said the council still needed to speak to organisations such as health services, schools and the voluntary sector.

Cllr McLean said: “I would love to have a nice shiny library strategy with my face on it saying this is the plan for libraries going forward. But it’s not ready.”

However, Christofi indicated that the delay was linked to the coming elections and said: “My view on this is it didn’t seem sensible to be taking the new strategy to March. We had to wait for a new administration to determine what they felt the priorities would be for libraries.”

Leading Labour councillors are set to back the updated budget plans at a meeting next Tuesday (17th). The final budget will then be debated and voted on at a meeting of all councillors on Thursday, 26th February.

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